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Benefits of the future – 6 perks your hybrid workforce actually want

Benefits of the future - 6 perks your hybrid workforce actually want

Written by Matt Everson

A Digital/Agile HR Business Partner with a keen interest in politics, the environment and sustainability. Previous experience in Telecomms, Start-Up and Global Media. Matt lives in Reading with his fiance, Emma and puppy, Daphne.

A few days ago I saw a comment on a ChatTalent LinkedIn post which got me thinking – what would be the best benefits for the future? Since we’re all likely going to be splitting our time between the office and home, we’re not likely to value the office perks such as free fruit in the office or drinks… So here’s my list of what benefits we should all be considering:

Pensions

First of all, let’s start with the big one, that way too many people overlook – Pension contributions.

This is cash to your future self. And it definitely outweighs all the free coffees you can drink in the office or discounted gym classes you can go to.

The more you invest in your future pension and the earlier you do it in your career, the bigger impact that compound interest will have on your pension.  MoneySavingExpert says “The basic advice with pensions is to put in is as much as possible, as early as possible”.

If your employer matches your pension at higher amounts, do it! This is FREE money for future you.

The importance of pensions in the future hybrid world will be huge! I’m sure nobody is going to complain about retiring before they’re 70!

TIP – If you’re an employer, educate your staff on your pension offering. Often the pension provider will do it for free for you! It’s the biggest unrealised benefit for everybody, in my opinion.

 

Solar Panels

Bear with me on this, as I think it’d be pretty cool.

I would love to see some companies start to put these in their benefits package as a way of keeping employees energy costs down whilst working from home, but also improving the employer branding at the same time.

Think about it. When you start at a company, your employer says “here’s £5k to install solar panels and as long as you work XYZ years you don’t have to pay anything back”. Would you not jump at this opportunity?

This could be the future replacement of a car benefit.

TIP – For those that can’t have solar panels installed perhaps the substitution could be insulation in their house or energy efficiency.

 

Doggy Daycare

It’s no secret that many people who never thought they could have a dog, now have a canine friend living at home.

There’s been a puppy boom – Which I’m part of, be fair…

Having always been in the category of commuting to London each day and my partner working in an office, we never thought we could have a dog. But if we’re at home 4 days a week between the 2 of us – it’s totally manageable! So we’ve got a gorgeous blonde Cocker Spaniel.

And we won’t be the only people to have done this.

So if your company, who wanted to incentivise you to come to the office, offers to pay for your dog to be walked or for it to go into doggy daycare? Would you be interested? I certainly would be!

TIP – The actual cost for an employer wouldn’t have to be ridiculous either. Look at teaming up with local suppliers close to the office.

 

Coffee & Flower Subscriptions

If you can’t get to the office coffee, then it shall come to you!

Imagine being sent a fresh load of artisan coffee once a month from your employer – nice right?

It definitely could become the norm as more and more people have coffee machines and work from home. I would certainly take advantage of this perk!

While it’s probably not cheap for the employer, working out at around £60 a year for each employee, the likelihood is they could get some discount by buying in bulk so it would certainly be manageable!

This could also be managed in the same way for flower subscriptions – how nice would it be to have fresh flowers from your employer every month!?

Cleaners

Again, if we’re spending more time at home, it’s not unfeasible that employers may offer perks of having a cleaner twice a month at home.

I could see this being done through big agencies and not costing the business ridiculous amounts of money.

This benefit is equally helping an employees wellbeing and improving their ‘focus time’ for your business. No more worrying about putting on a load of washing or cleaning the windows. Win-win for everybody.

Charity Donations & Matching

I really hope that everybody has come out of this pandemic with a renewed societal responsibility.

We’re all part of the same world and we need to make it great together.

Companies can majorly help their employer brand by giving employees the chance to donate money (example: company gives £25 a quarter) to a charity of their choice.

This not only has big wellbeing effect on the employee, but the company can also claim tax back too making the incentive to do this for a business quite high. Win-win again!

I’d love to hear what ‘different’ type of perks people think companies should start offering and why?

Personally, I’d love a decent pension, some solar panels and a flower subscription. What about you?

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